Sorry to dig this up again, but there’s a particularly pervasive narrative I keep running into, regarding the most recent presidential race. I’ve found myself replying to it with the following on several occasions, so perhaps it’s worth putting up here for posterity if nothing else.

I wrote:

The idea that Donald Trump was an unstoppable political juggernaut who single-handedly vanquished all 17 of his primary opponents, one by one, and then went on to topple the supposedly unbeatable Hillary Clinton, is a tale that his supporters unsurprisingly love to repeat. But it is a revisionist lie.

The truth is that Trump did not win the 2016 election. Clinton lost it. That may sound like a distinction without a difference, but it is a crucially important fact.

Roughly 40% of Republican primary voters chose Trump. That means the remaining 60% voted for someone who wasn't Trump. The only reason he got through the primaries is because there were 16 other candidates splitting the vote every which way, he got far more free media coverage than anyone else, plus a lot of Democrats crossed over to vote for him in the open primary states because they thought he'd be the easiest candidate for "their girl" to beat. And they were almost right.

The only reason he's President is because Hillary Clinton was literally the most disastrous candidate the Democrats have nominated in at least a century, and even then, he still managed to lose the popular vote to her by a far larger margin than any other sitting U.S. President ever has. And no, that wasn't all fraud and California. Luckily, Clinton's campaign was far more incompetent than anyone had expected it to be, apparently having taken for granted (along with nearly all of the pundits) that she would easily have the Electoral College sewn up. That was the biggest mistake she made, and you can bet that whoever the Dems nominate in 2020 won't repeat it.

The notion that there was some sort of populist tidal wave of voters who demanded the Donald and no one else is a delusional myth, and those who cling to it are inviting disastrous electoral consequences.

Clinton's campaign was far more incompetent than anyone had expected it to be, apparently having taken for granted (along with nearly all of the pundits) that she would easily have the Electoral College sewn up. That was the biggest mistake she made, and you can bet that whoever the Dems nominate in 2020 won't repeat it.

Looking at how the Democratic Party have been operating their "Resistance," I wholeheartedly doubt they've learned a thing. Their base hates them. HATES. THEM. And the feeling is mutual, seeing how the party completely ignores their constituents, which is the biggest political sin you can commit. You NEVER ignore your base, or you are going to lose every single time. For all the shit I give Republicans (and there is a LOT of shit can throw at those cave-dwelling troglodytes), they at least throw their base a bone every now and then to keep up loyalty. The Democrats are ludicrously, fantastically, hilariously incompetant and spineless, and so long as that remains the case, they will never win another Presidential campaign.

Clinton's campaign was far more incompetent than anyone had expected it to be, apparently having taken for granted (along with nearly all of the pundits) that she would easily have the Electoral College sewn up. That was the biggest mistake she made, and you can bet that whoever the Dems nominate in 2020 won't repeat it.

Looking at how the Democratic Party have been operating their "Resistance," I wholeheartedly doubt they've learned a thing. Their base hates them. HATES. THEM. And the feeling is mutual, seeing how the party completely ignores their constituents, which is the biggest political sin you can commit. You NEVER ignore your base, or you are going to lose every single time. For all the shit I give Republicans (and there is a LOT of shit can throw at those cave-dwelling troglodytes), they at least throw their base a bone every now and then to keep up loyalty.

Yeah, not so much. We get a lot of tough talk, sure, but rarely is it ever even accompanied by any tiny bone fragments, let alone actual bones.

I'm pretty sure the Repubicans loathe their own base far more than the Democrats ever have. Right now they're (allegedly) "in control" of all branches of government, largely despite their own best efforts, and pretty much exclusively due to the Dems having alienated huge swaths of the nation, and them being the only quasi-viable alternative. The fact that they've managed to skate by for this long on that, and that alone, is truly astonishing but it cannot and will not last. Especially if they keep heading in the direction they're currently pursuing.

I'm pretty sure the Repubicans loathe their own base far more than the Democrats ever have. Right now they're (allegedly) "in control" of all branches of government, largely despite their own best efforts, and pretty much exclusively due to the Dems having alienated huge swaths of the nation, and them being the only quasi-viable alternative. The fact that they've managed to skate by for this long on that, and that alone, is truly astonishing but it cannot and will not last. Especially if they keep heading in the direction they're currently pursuing.

Might be why they're trying to milk it for all it's worth now...or is it less of a milk operation at this point, and more of a beef one?

I'm pretty sure the Repubicans loathe their own base far more than the Democrats ever have. Right now they're (allegedly) "in control" of all branches of government, largely despite their own best efforts, and pretty much exclusively due to the Dems having alienated huge swaths of the nation, and them being the only quasi-viable alternative. The fact that they've managed to skate by for this long on that, and that alone, is truly astonishing but it cannot and will not last. Especially if they keep heading in the direction they're currently pursuing.

Might be why they're trying to milk it for all it's worth now...or is it less of a milk operation at this point, and more of a beef one?

Except they're not. What they're doing is the opposite of milking their majority. That would be if they were driving a genuinely and unapologetically conservative agenda, day in and day out. But instead, they're just pretending to do that for the most part, while actively enshrining the Democrats' most unpopular policies into permanent law. Things like Obamacare and DACA, those also being the same things that every last one of these lying bastards campaigned against, for years, in order to win their current majority.

Say what you will about the Democrats, who are currently in the minority, yet they effectively control the Senate because Mitch McConnell is a literal invertebrate. In fact a very strong case could be made that they are more effective in the minority than the GOP is in the majority.

Except they're not. What they're doing is the opposite of milking their majority.

Not milking their majority, milking their base; in the "squeezing the life out for their own ends" sense. The events would be consistent with them believing they have more to gain personally from keeping/altering the policies than from upholding their campaign promises to remove those policies. As you noted, they've made it quite a ways on "hey, sure we have a lot of contempt for you, but we're still better than the other guys" already, so it's not like they'd expect to lose their seats over reneging....

Not milking their majority, milking their base; in the "squeezing the life out for their own ends" sense. The events would be consistent with them believing they have more to gain personally from keeping/altering the policies than from upholding their campaign promises to remove those policies. As you noted, they've made it quite a ways on "hey, sure we have a lot of contempt for you, but we're still better than the other guys" already, so it's not like they'd expect to lose their seats over reneging....

Ah, now I understand. In that case, yeah, that's exactly what they've been doing.

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